NEW  VOLATILE  ALKALOIDS. 
41 
binoxide  of  manganese,  five  drachms.  Dissolve  the  caustic  pot-  ' 
ash  and  the  chlorate  in  a  small  quantity  of  water,  and  add  the 
manganese ;  get  rid  of  the  water  by  evaporation,  stirring  con- 
stantly, and  calcine  the  dry  mass  to  a  dark  red  for  an  hour  in  an 
untinned  iron  cup ;  allow  to  cool,  and  add  a  quart  of  plain  water. 
Then  boil  for  five  minutes  in  a  china  capsule,  and  you  will  obtain 
a  fluid  of  a  slightly  purplish  tint ;  decant  the  solution,  and  wash 
the  residue  with  such  a  quantity  of  water  as  to  make  altogether 
two  quarts.  When  filtering  is  thought  necessary,  the  liquid 
should  be  passed,  not  through  paper,  but  through  very  fine  sand. 
For  dressing  foul  wounds,  or  for  injecting,  use  one  drachm  of 
this  solution  to  from  three  drachms  to  five  of  spring  water. — Am. 
Jour.  Med.  Sciences,  Oct.,  1863,  from  The  Lancet,  August  22, 
1863.   
ON  SOME    NEW    VOLATILE    ALKALOIDS    GIVEN  OFF 
DURING  PUTREFACTION. 
Dr.  Ckace  Calvert  communicated  under  this  title  to  the 
Royal  Society  (Feb.  1860)  the  preliminary  results  of  some  inves- 
tigations on  the  product  of  putrid  wounds,  with  reference  to  the 
contagion  known  as  hospital  gangrene.  We  have  waited  the  con- 
clusion of  his  research,  but  as  it  has  not  yet  appeared  we  give 
the  main  points  of  his  first  paper.  Failing  to  obtain  a  sufficient 
supply  of  the  products  emanating  from  putrid  wounds,  he  arranged, 
in  each  of  a  number  of  small  casks,  twenty  pounds  of  meat  and 
fish,  mixed  with  pumice  stone  to  prevent  clogging.  Two  tubes 
were  adapted  to  the  top  of  each  cask,  one  of  which  supplied  air, 
which  was  drawn  through  the  other  from  near  the  bottom 
of  the  cask  by  an  aspirator.  The  air  in  its  passage 
passed  through  two  bottles  containing  chloride  of  platinum, 
which  was  soon  made  turbid  by  the  production  of  a  yellow 
amorphous  powder.  This  precipitate  collected,  washed  with  water 
and  alcohol,  and  dried,  was  found  by  analysis  to  contain  carbon, 
hydrogen,  and  nitrogen,  but  what  was  remarkable,  sulphur  and 
phosphorus  also  entered  into  its  composition.  The  amount  of 
these  elements  determined  quantitatively  was  11  per  cent,  for  the 
sulphur  and  6*01  per  cent,  of  phosphorus,  of  the  whole  precipi- 
tate.   By  heating  a  quantity  of  the  platinum  salt  with  a  strong 
